Hoops Tonight - Lakers beat Suns, Steph Curry & Warriors notch road win vs. Luka Doncic & Mavericks

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dot net in West Virginia. All right, Welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by FanDuel here at the volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. We are live on AM. Don't forget if you're watching on YouTube. We're listening on the podcast feed at AMPS, the very first place that you guys can get these shows. We have a jam pack show for you tonight, highly entertaining night in basketball. We're gonna be hitting on the Anthony Davis in his second half destruction of the Phoenix Suns.

The Warriors got their second consecutive road win over the Dallas Mavericks. We're gonna talk about John Morant's return, a little bit about Jaron Jackson and what I think the Grizzlies need from those guys in order to have a real chance to win the NBA Championship. So I'm changing one of my major postseason predictions in light of the

Paul George injury, and the last one. At least, the Boston Celtics notched a incredibly impressive win on the road in Sacramento, and shortly before that, I believe Jaylen Brown had some interesting comments. So we're gonna go out to the Eastern Conference to talk a little bit Celtics and Jamo Brown. You guys know the drill. Before we get started, subscribe to the Volumes YouTube channels so you don't miss

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Time today, last minute tickets, lowest price guaranteed. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Lakers get another big win over the Phoenix Suns. It's been mostly them playing really well ever since the trade deadline, with exception of some really bad one and three stretch over four game stretch where they got some inconsistent play out of Anthony Davis and lost the game when Anthony Davis rested. And you know, it's funny because I have a lot of the Lakers fans get on me a lot about how

critical I am of Anthony Davis. And that's not unique to the Lakers. That's kind of just the way it is with every fan base. There. A lot of fans want to hear very rose colored glasses approaches to their team, and that's just not what this show is about. This show is I'm just gonna give you guys my authentic and honest opinion about any team and any player. And I'll admit that I'm biased about certain things, and I

am biased about the Lakers. I root for them. They're the team in the league that I root for the most. I don't really have an NBA team that I'm directly associated with, but Lebron has always been my favorite player,

so I root for the Lakers. And you know, Anthony Davis has been one of the more frustrating players that I've rooted for in my time as a basketball fan, in large part because the difference between what he's capable of when he is locked in and physically aggressive versus when he's coasting through games or anything else below that is a massive chasm, and you know, you'll see dynamics like what you saw in this particular game, Anthony Davis you saw in the first half versus the Anthony Davis

you saw in the second half. That oscillation between those two versions of AD has been a massive storyline in his time as a Laker, at least since the twenty twenty season, when I will admit that he was dominant throughout you know, and I don't know what happened after that point. I'm sure it's a combination of a bunch of different things. He put on a lot of it. He put on a lot of weight, so he's not as fast as he used to be. He's had some

bad luck with injuries. He definitely let his foot off the gas a little bit in terms of just his overall competitiveness and aggression after that title, because he came in healthy into the following season and started the following season kind of passively working his way through the season and so like, it just hasn't been consistently that version of Anthony Davis since he came to LA and that's been frustrated because what happens when he engages himself like that,

drop steps, spin, move dunks, you know, like barreling down to the rim, and nobody can stop him without fouling him. He's so good when he's physically aggressive to the rim. He's not Yannis, but he's close to that when he's engaging himself like that. And that's why it's frustrating when he floats through games. You know, there's been a lot of excuse making from Lakers fans on that front. Oh they're not running enough plays for him, Oh you know,

like it's the guards are looking him off. I completely and vehemently disagree with that. If you're a guard and you're operating through a game and you toss the ball to your big man, your star, and he just kind of stands there and casually waits for the devil team and then makes a kickout pass to the wing, or if he catches and looks at it at his man and takes two crazy dribbles and takes a wild step back jump shot from twenty feet and it's just not

producing offense. Then it's a guard as your program, So make the right play for your team. You will start to be like, hey, comes to a ball screen, Let's see if we can get you somewhere else on the floor. Right, they're reacting to AD's passivity when he is physically aggressive. They do give him the basketball when he's engaging himself like that. Like he touched the ball almost every time down in the third quarters. You know why because every time he touched it, it was a point and a half.

He was either make a shot or going to the foul line and going one for two. And I mean, and what was interesting is he kind of started to build his rhythm there at the free throw line, and then what happened He made two highly difficult pull up jump shots. Because what do I always talk about if you build your rhythm by finding easy shots, and easy shots are not just layups, they're also the free throw line. The free throw line is an amazing opportunity to build

the rhythm for your jump shot. We just talked about this in the Dallas game when Natsi Kleiba had not made a three in the game, but he made three straight free throws on the previous possession, effectively practicing his release so that it felt great when he made the game winner on the following possession. There is an order of operations to being consistently great as an offensive player.

You build your rhythm through easier shots, and then you start to test yourself to see what you're capable of. Devin Booker did that tonight. He was drifting his way to fouls, and once he started to find his release there at the foul line, that was when he started going aggressively to his pull up jump shot. You know, I hold a d to that standard, not because I'm trying to be a jerk, not because I'm trying to

be overleague critical. It's because I think that when Anthony Davis plays like that, he is one of the five best players in basketball. That's how highly I think of Anthony Davis. When he is engaged, I think he's I think his ceiling defensively is higher than any other players in the league. Hiring Draymond's hired the Broglopez hiring. Janis hired Rudy Gobert, but I've never considered him the best defender in the league because he just doesn't bring it

enough often enough in games. And then on the offensive end of the floor, his combination as a play finisher, as a downhill force when he's being physically aggressive, and a pick him pop threat, and a guy who can make those fifteen to twenty foot jump shots consistently when he's in rhythm. That guy, combined with being the best defender basketball, a guy that can dominate games as a rebounder as well, that guy is a top tier superstar.

And like the same way you guys would criticize Janis if he was inconsistent, the same way you guys would criticize him beat if he was inconsistent, the same way you guys would criticize Jokis if he was inconsistent. That's just the standard I hold a D two. Is he one of those guys or is he something else? Because if he's something else, if he's not that guy, then I'd be happy to start to be a little bit

more relaxed than the way that we cover it. The difference between the way he engaged himself and the second half of that game versus the first half of that game was jarring. The second half of that game versus every one of his previous five games except for the Pelicans game is jarring, and a disappointing thing in it all is It's simply a matter of physical aggression. And for the Lakers, they are desperate. There's no reason in the world why he shouldn't be at that level as

much as he physically can manage. From a tactical perspective, one thing I really liked in that second half that I'd like to see a little bit more from Anthony Davis is going quickly off the catch instead of waiting for a double team. You know, we talk about Yannis a lot for being kind of a balloon of China's shop, And I don't mean that critically with Yannis, because you guys know, I think Yannis is the best basketball player

in the world. But like sometimes Yannis, like one of the best ways that he counters double teams is he catches the ball and he sees like a little slip of space. Even if there's like defender right in front of him, a defender digging down from the left wing, a defender digging down from the right wing, He'll see one of those gaps, and he'll find one that looks just a little better than the other and he'll just go through it. And he'll get offensive fouls every single game,

he'll get turnovers every single game. But you know what else, he gets a million free throws and a million baskets, and he averages like thirty two points per game. And so one of the ways that you can counter dub teaming and crowding, specifically when you have a physical advantage. Obviously, if you're DeAngelo Russell and you try to do that,

they're gonna bounce you off instead of you bouncing them off. Right, But you're Anthony Davis, one of the most basically gifted athletes in the league, and when you just throw your head down and go to the rim, you're gunna drop fouls, you're gonna get baskets, and yeah, you have occasional charges and turn and you'll turn the ball over occasionally. Sometimes I think Ad plays too safe instead of just understanding

that his job is to be a wrecking ball. And that's the way that the Lakers can win a championship. Lebron the half court surgeon with some of that perimeter shack and then Anthony Davis, the wrecking ball with the skilled guards around them, Aussa Reeves. You know, following up is the thirty five, six and six. The other night follows that up with twenty five and ten again tonight.

You know what's funny is like last year, I was really coming into the beginning of this year, I was higher on Austin Reeves than the vast majority of even Laker fans. There were a couple of specific things that I thought he was really good at. He's an excellent positional defender, meaning like he doesn't get aggressive at the basketball. He just understands if I slide my feet and I put my chest between my man in the basket, he'll

have to shoot over the top of me. If he has to shoot over the top of me, he's either gonna miss or he's gonna try to go through me, and I'll draw a budge offensive fouls as I get elbowed in the face and then on the offensive end

of the floor. I just viewed him as this awesome connective piece, a guy that can knock down spot at threes, but was an excellent like second side creator, like a guy that can attack with an advantage and then attacking clothes outs so good at like like getting into the middle of the lane and getting guys off balance to draw fouls and hit cutters and things along those lines. Even as optimistic as I was, I never in a million years thought he could be this guy. Somehow I

underestimated him. I can't say credit for it because it's from one of my bosses, But one of my bosses says that he reminds me of that he reminds him of Manu Genobli, And I think it's a super interesting comp because, you know, MANAGENOBLEI was not the most athletic player in his position, very similar to Austin Reeves, like man who played the same position as Kobe Bryant, but without the you know, the ridiculous set of physical tools that Kobe Bryant had, right, But one of the things

that Manage Genoble did is it was a combination of understanding the angles and leverage you need to get defenders out of the position and weaponizing defenders physical gifts against them. So, for instance, like if you've got better physical tools than the guy you're guarding, a lot of times when you get beat off the dribble, you think to yourself, like, I can recover, I can get back into this play. All I gotta do is sprit because I'm a better athlete and I'm gonna get there. And Austin is so

good at again. He'll flip angles of the screen. We talked about this a lot, getting the defense to pick a side that he thinks the screen's gonna go, and start preparing to go over the screen, but then suddenly reversing that angle, so he's out of position. Austin gets you out of position. Once you're out of position, he's expecting you to come flying back into the play, and that's when he gets you with those foul calls. But the combination of legit high end shot making, the dude's

going to be a perennial fifty forty ninety guy. He's got all the important shots that pull up fifteen footer, the catch and shoot three, the pull up three when the guy goes underneath the screen, the floater, the hook shot, the scoop shot, and then he combines that with the ability to make all the necessary reads. That's really all you need to be a primary ball handler. If you can make the right reads and you can make all the shots that present themselves at an efficient rate, you

can be a primary ball handler in the NBA. You know, I thought it was super interesting that Darvin him moved him into the starting lineup, and I thought it was the right move, you know, I was on the fence about it, like, obviously Austin is he's just better than

Malik Beasley, so he deserves to start. But one of the reasons why it wasn't like actively pushing for it was just I understood the staggering elements of it, right, Like Austin can run the bench unit right now, you don't have Lebron, so you need that little bit of extra ball handling, right, Lebron will be running bench groups because of the way they use Anthony Davis. Lebron will be running bench groups. So it kind of made some

sense to me. But at the end of the day, there were a couple of specific advantages that immediately became apparent. And I always just knew who cares who starts, Like it just doesn't matter. Austin's gonna be out there more minutes and he's gonna be out there to close games, right, But moving into the starting line I thought was interesting on a couple of different levels. First of all, I actually liked Angel Russell offball more than on ball. He

made several very important spot up threes. I made two whom I think in the fourth quarter of this game. He's got a very quick release on the catch, and he doesn't need to get his feet set or dip. He can, like on the catch, just kind of flow up into his shot. So there's no wasted time there.

So he doesn't need a ton of space. And so you can't put Delo off the ball if Molik bees Lee is with him, because Malie Beasley is an off ball player, so bringing Austin Reeves onto the floor open things up for Dangel Russell to get more off ball opportunities. So it made some sense there, right. But another big part of it is it helped, I think, specifically in

the second half, with getting Anthony Davis involved. You know, one of the things that the Lakers have done a lot lately is run action for Malik Beasley, just having him fly off the screens, off the weeks out of the floor and have him rise up and take shots. The problem with that is Malik's not that good at that particular type of shot, and he hasn't been a consistently elite shooter for the Lakers, and really anywhere in his career is just a high volume, thirty six percent guy, right.

But most importantly, running action for Malie Beasley means you're not running action with Anthony Davis, because again they're Anthony Davis is involved in that action, but primarily as a screener, and they're prepared to handle Malik Beasley as a curling player, and so Anthony Davis could have openings they're poppingto the three point line that Ad doesn't like to take three, So doesn't really make a ton of sense to use

Anthony Davis that way. Having Malik Beasley run those off screen actions with Winnie and Gabriel makes a lot more sense. And so moving off some raves the starting lineup was I thought an interesting little adjustment from Darbnham that I agreed with. The biggest thing that they're gonna have to track here over the course of the rest of the

season is the dynamic with Lebron out. Do you run the offense through Anthony Davis or do you run the offense through the guards meaning high pick and roll or you know, they were they kept running the same play every time down the floor tonight, where they would get Anthony Davis on the left block and they'd have one of the Laker guards to set a pin down for Anthony Davis at the block, having curl up to the free throw line just so Anthony Davis could have a

tiny bit of separation so that he could quit catch and go to work, right, And like, that's the way you run it through Anthony Davis. But if you're running it through the guards, it's all high ball screens with AD setting the screen that dynamic needs to be decided gains a game if Anthony Davis was consistently this physically aggressive downhill, run the damn offense through Ad every single game.

But there's just that's just not the case. Ad is gonna inconsistent with his engagement level physically, So it's gonna be one of those things where you're gonna have to kind of tow that line where if Ads not engage mentally, you do need to run it through the guards. And between Austin Reeves, Dennis Schroeder, and Dangel Russell, the Lakers actually have a very good guard core, and so that's actually in many nights, the better way to run offense

when Anthony Davis is not engaged. Before we move on Devin Booker, I am terrified of the Phoenix Suns. I said this yesterday with the same Massini when we were talking. But I've been high on Devin Booker pretty much for the last two years. You guys have noticed, those of you who have been following the show of notice that I've been really impressed with this playmaking. And he's gone from like Bradley Beal type of inconsistent scorer to like

deadly efficient score with the high level playmaking. Which is the difference between a volume scoring guard like Bradley Beale and a superstar like Devin Booker. That is the difference, the next level of efficiency and the high level playmaking. But like, he completely controlled and dominated that game for the Suns offensively, and I appreciate we talked about this earlier, but I liked the way he built his rhythm by grifting his way to the line, and I hate foul drifting.

I tweeted this third in the game. I hated the way that game was officiated on both ends of the floor. But I've just kind of reserved myself to the fact that that's the way that basketball is going to be for a while until the NBA makes some significant changes. But he built his rhythm at the line, then he got crazy with the pull up shooting. He every single time he saw the Lakers not set in their defense, he just hit Jared Vanderbilt with a quick move and tried to go to the ram and he got a

bunch of free throws that way he is. He's gone up a level this year to what I think is that legit consistent superstar status. I think you saw that without Phoenix fell apart when he got hurt, and I'm terrified to the Suns put that guy, which is a better version of Kyrie Irving. With Kevin Durant, with Deandreton, with Chris Paul, with what Joshu Kogi brings as a point of attack defender, and he's got a little bit

of downhill athletic force himself. They're terrifying, and like the deeper they get into the playoffs and get that continuity, I'm going to be more and more scared of them, And I can tell you guys right now that I'm probably going to pick them to win the title at the start of next season. If they can address the specific needs that they have on that roster. All right, let's move on to the Warrior's maps. So the Warriors

finally get two consecutive road wins. I was talking about the schedule coming in after the last Warriors game, and I talked about how, like that Houston battle was going to be an interesting challenge, Like Houston's kind of big and strong on the perimeter, right, and Golden State struggles on the road. They battle through there, they get a win. The Dallas game, that's a tough that's a tough place

to play on the road. And what's interesting is, I a it's an easier matchup for Golden State because Dallas also is missing length and athleticism on the perimeter and in the front court. Right. So that specific issue, like that's been the problem that's plagued Golden State over the course of the last couple of months. Andrew Wiggins has gone Gary Payton is hurt. They're trying to go out there and win NBA games. Is one of the least athletic and least tall perimeter teams in the league, and

it just is really tough for them to compensate. But fortunately with Dallas in particular, they also suffer from that same problem, so they were able to flip that script. They outrebounded Dallas forty four to thirty one. They had eleven offensive rebounds for eighteen second chance points, which was literally the difference in the game. And what was funny is I'm sure you guys who watched the game kind

of felt this way. That whole fourth quarter is one of the most entertaining fourth quarters that I've seen this year, And it kind of is that little bit of a hint of what we're gonna get for two months, because what you saw was true, like complete and total desperation from two teams that are clawing to get out of the plane. And that's what the playoffs are for two months. It's just desperation from everybody. But like desperation just brings a level of effort and energy on both ends of

the floor that makes for highly entertaining basketball. Is super chaotic. I think both teams actually scored pretty well all things considered, which is to be expected with the lack of athleticism on the floor. But it came down to at the end of the game, Steph made two plays and the Warriors got two stops. That was literally the difference in the game. It was back and forth, back and forth and back and forth, and then Steph made two plays

and the Warriors got two stops. The two plays, there was a really nice player where Steph snake to pick and roll, and again what that means is when you go over the top of the screen, the defender's chasing you over the top, but if you quick go over to the other side of the screen, the defender will be trapped behind you and you can slow yourself down and kind of pin him. And then it's very interesting. This is the player where Draymond gets the end one.

Steph just literally looks up at the rim like he's gonna shoot his little floater, and Christian Wood just takes one false step up towards Steph to contest the floater, and step throws a no look bounce pass to Draymond Green. Draymond goes up through the contact Christian Woods, not exceptionally strong player, Draymond powers through him and gets the end one, and then the second one he's got a Maxi cleave

on him. And we just talked about this earlier with the Lakers with Austin reeves flipping the angle of a screen or rejecting the screen, which basically just means we talked about this before. When the guard is preparing to go over a screen, he's gonna take a big step high up over the top of the screen to try to sidle up over the top of that screen. That's a great time to flip angles or to reverse and go the other way because his steps are off and

he's not in a position to stay in front. Steph hits him with the behind the back Trible rejects the screen. Draymond Green has Reggie Bullock on him from the switch, and he just boxes him out of the lane and leaves Steph with a wide open, driving right handed layup. Two excellent examples of high pick and roll shot creation from Steph Curry then and then on the other end of the floor. The Warriors got the two stops they needed. The first one Clay Thompson on Luca. Luca a tacks

Clay on a switch, targets Clay. They don't even need to double. Luca tries to hit him with his textbook hesitation to go to his right. Clay funnels him towards the sideline. Luca ends up throwing a pass to the middle of the floor and goes back to get a dribble hand off with Clay on him. And what I thought was so smart is Clay understood the amount of time that was on the shot clock. Luca is not an exceptionally fast player. There was only about three or

four seconds on the shot clock. Clay knew he was not going to go past him to the rim. There wasn't enough time. And what is Lucas go to move in a late clock situation. And when he's got that type of matchup the step back three. And if you watch Clay, he sold out on the step back three and Luca went for it obviously because it was his only option there. Luca had to step through and he misses that little floating jumps out at the top of

the key. Excellent individual defense from Clay Thompson, which has been a hallmark of his career. And then on the final possession, at him bounds pass to Luca underneath the basket, Draymond just walls up and sends him under the rim.

That's a super common play you'll see in basketball is a player that catches the ball underneath the rim and it's a good place to draw a foul if the defender comes down with his arms, and so most offenders will just wall up, and as the offensive player, you have to jump into him and try to win that physical confrontation to dislodge him enough to go up and

make that lay up underneath the rim. But Draymond is as stout a power forward that you'll find in the league, holds his ground, forces the miss on Luca don Chich and the game is over a couple of specific shout out like classic Warriors execution down the stretch, a couple

of specific shout outs steps on ballplaymaking. Yet thirteen assists in this game had excellent chemistry hitting Draymond Green and Jonathan Cominga and the role and pick and roll in ISO, he was hitting cutters when they would get too many eyes on the basketball. He was really good with transition kick aheads today, like just spotting those little spots in transition where a guy wasn't getting matched up. He'd kick ahead to Comingo for a dunker, kick ahead to Draymond

Green for a layout. You know what's interesting with step is he's never really thought of is a great passer because so many people just look at his assists numbers instead of watching the games. But the truth of the matter is as steps assists numbers are low because he operates off the ball all the time. His assists are

the attention that he gets garners from defenses. But making no mistake, if he played Damian Lillard ball and he just ran high pick and roll fifty times a game, I guarantee you he could average a double figure assists in this league. He's every bit as good a pastor in high pick and roll as the best cards in the league. He just simply doesn't need to do that because of how well he weaponizes his off ball attention. Jordan Pool played a really nice game six assists with

no turnovers. His dribble penetration was a huge swing factor in the third quarter running from the Warriors. He was just consistently beating Jaden Hardy and Josh Green off the bounce. There's a play, just one of the most ridiculous, like highlight plays in basketball that you'll see that kind of got glossed over in this game. Jordan Pool is Josh Green on him, calls for a ball screen, comes hard off of it to his left when the big shows.

He whips into a spin to split the pick and roll, and I can't even begin to describe how complicated that is. Splitting the pick and roll is already tough because that gap is super tight. Most players have split the pick and roll will push the ball in between and try to cdle in between and catch up to the ball. Jordan's just so damn fast that he's covering so much

ground that that gap is pretty big. He spun into split the pick and roll and dropped it off for Jamichael Green for a dunk, and had that little flare with his hands out, you know, the Jordan Poole ceiling. It's it's he's such a high, high level dribble creator in this league just because people can't keep him in front. I've only played the game tonight. And then lastly, Johnathan Cominga.

You know it's funny is I talked a lot in this show about the intelligent switch that Golden State made to kind of turn Jonathan Cominga into a big in the offensive sense, operating mostly as a cutter, operating most of the screen and roll guy, and he did a lot of that tonight, cut into the rim. He had a really nice left handed finishing pick and roll with Steph Curry in a late fourth quarter play I had like his left hand is actually sneaky, super accurate off

the glass. But what I want to talking about cominga tonight is he a big part of why they physically dominated Dallas, because again they didn't have the physical mismatches with Dallas, but they actually dominated Dallas physically in this game, and a big part of it was Jonathan Cominga put put forth a reasonable vacsimile of what Andrew Wiggins was

excellent point of attack defense on Luca don Chich. He was doing this thing where like Luca will Luca will give the ball up to the big and then do like a false cut and then try to cut off the top for like a dribble handoff to go downhill, and Johnathan Comingo was shooting that gap and he actually forced a couple turnovers that way for just unbelievable ridiculous

transition dunks too. But then he was also I thought he did a pretty solid job all game in point of attack on Luca, his spot up shooting at two corner threes, Like if he starts knocking down corner threes at a consistent right that's obviously a huge game changer. And then one of the big things I always talking

about with Andrew Wiggins is matchup attacking. So like you get a smaller play you're on the perimeter, Andrew Wiggins in the playoffs last year, which constantly just like rip through the middle and like get to the basket, or if did you cut him off, just bump him off and like make a little float or a little short

pull up jump shot. There's a play in the I think it was in the fourth quarter of this game where he happened to have Jayden Hardy on him on a switch late clock situation on the left wing, and he just ripped through to the right, bump Jaden Hardy, hard spin back towards his left hand, soft left hand finished off the glass. That's all Andrew Wiggins stuff. And again, like when we're talking about the Warriors, like here's the thing. If Andrew Wiggins doesn't come back, it's gonna be extremely

difficult for them to win a championship. That's just the reality of NBA basketball. I would imagine even most of you Warriors fans can acknowledge that. But if there was a puncher's chance, it's what if Jonathan Cominga can give you eighty percent of what Andrew Wiggins gives you, And obviously that would still maybe not be enough because ideally you want all three you want coming off the bench, with Gary Payton off the bench, Wiggins in the starting lineup.

But that gives you at least a fighting chance before we move on with the Mavericks. So that weird play in the third quarter. Here's the thing. Did the ref screw up? Yeah? They did. What should the crew chief do when like one team is way on one side of the court and there's clearly confusion over who has possession.

Maybe you're run out onto the floor and you blow the play debt Like, of course it was a mistake, but Mark Human making such a big deal out of it and protesting the game is such a loser mentality, Like how many times in a basketball game does something that's out of your control not go your way? A bad call, a missed goaltend, a guy steps out of bounds and the ref just doesn't see it. Lucky stuff like dude throws up a half court shot MC goes in.

There are random occurrences a half dozen probably in every single basketball game that are completely out of your control. Sometimes all six of them go against you and you have to try to find a way to win. You land late in the fourth quarter of this game, and you couldn't close the deal because they got the clutch baskets and you could not. That's a loser mentality. It's like Luca Donche, It's like, look, everyone who has played basketball at any level gets frustrated with officiating. That is

just normal part of being a competitor. But there's a way to handle it, and there's a way not to.

You know, I was talking there's a friend of mine who plays NCAA basketball right now, and they just lost a heartbreaking game in the tournament and is one of the guys I work out with when he comes home in the summer and on two awful calls, an awful call and regulation and an awful call at ot And when I messaged him about it, the kid's attitude, who was like, yeah, it sucked, but you know what, like we gotta be better so that we can't find ourselves

in that situation next year. Of course he's pissed off about the play, but it's just a loser mentality to go up to the refs and make the money sign like, No, Luca, you didn't lose that game because of officiating. Draymond didn't foul you on the final basket under the play? Were there some play under the basket? Were there some plays where you got foul? Yeah, But the same could be said on the other end of the floor, Steph Curry

doesn't get a great whistle. Hate to break it to you, and so just that over that again, maybe it did get screwed. That's a loser mentality. Find a way to win the game despite the things that every single team deals with that are outside of your control. All right, really quickly, let's move on to John Morand's return, so the Griz get a big win at home versus Rockets today one thirty one, twenty five. Jared Jackson, junior, thirty seven and ten. I was texting with some of the

guys on our team before the show. If I were to ask you, guys, if Jared Jackson has any chance to be a better player than John Moran in a few years, would you guys think that is legitimate? And I don't know what I think yet. I'd really have to think about it. But like, here's the thing, I think Jared Jackson can be the best defensive player in the league. I think he has that potential. I also think he has real downhill force combined with a semi

reliable perimeter shot. And if he can improve his handle enough and if he can improve his court vision enough, if he's a reliable twenty five point per game guy who's also the best player a defensive player in the league. Like that's a top tier superstar. Like that's Anthony Davis ish right, you know, So, Like if he can get to that level, that's I don't know if John can

be a top tier superstar. He can't be a top tier superstar until he can figure out how to be at least a net neutral on the defensive end of the four. My gut says, I still think Job will be better in the long run. But for Memphis fans that's not a bad thing. Like, if Jared Jackson has the potential to be better than John in the future, that's fantastic for you because that means you could have two superstars. When it's all set and down. John Murray

came off the bench for seventeen and five. He's plus eleven. I'm not going to talk about the off course stuff with Jaw. I've said that a million times to you guys. It's not what she's coming to me for. I'm not going to pontificate about all of the many factors at play in his situation. You guys come to me for the basketball. But here's the thing. John Morant is the only legitimate chance that the Grizzlies have to win a championship this year. That's just a fact they You know.

It's funny. I talked a lot. I talked a lot with Saying the Seni about this yesterday when we were talking Grizzlies. But I look at that slow down half court dynamic a lot with teams, and really, to me, I think the biggest swing factor voor Memphis to win a championship potentially this year is John Moran needs to be very accurate with his pull up three point shot. Here's the reason why I feel that way. Teams are

going to pack the pain. That's just the reality. The Memphis loves to play two bigs because they're a big, physically imposing, you know, type of team. Especially with Brandon Clark out, I think you're going to see a lot of Xavier Toll and if Steven Adams can get back, I think you're gonna see a lot of Steven Adams. They're gonna play big, So there's gonna be a lot

of bodies in the pain. You are gonna see exaggerated ignoring of Dylan Brooks, and Memphis needs Dylon Brooks because he's one of the best perimeter defenders in the league, and he's gonna take a lot of those significant perimeter assignments. Desmond Maine obviously is a great shooting threat, but the reality of how that breaks down is John Moran's gonna be playing pick and roll two on three a lot. But that two on three is not gonna be blitzing

or double teaming. It's gonna be digging down from the wings. And so in a lot of cases, the best shots he's gonna be able to get is defenders sagging back or going or going underneath screens. With job with the ball in his hands, he's going to have to be consistent knocking down that pull up three. This year three point three pull up threes per game. He's shooting just thirty point six percent, and that was with him coming out the gates red hot. So I'm not super optimistic

about it. Right now. I do not have the Grizzlies on my list of teams that really can win a championship this year. I just don't think they have the level of half court shot creation. But there's a lot to be excited about. Jaren Jackson. That interior defense is f real. Dylan Brooks, he's gonna be very agent the summer. God knows what he's gonna make, but he's one of the best permimeter defenders in the leading got a lot of foundational pieces. They've just got to tie off some

of their half court shot creation stuff. But it's good to see John r a backpoint basketball the Clippers. So we're gonna talk about the Paul Georgie injury in a minute. It was a bizarre game. They one of the most bizarre final possessions of a game I've ever seen. Kawhi Leonard, who's renowned as one of the best clutched players in the league, and a guy who creates his own shot literally doesn't get a shot off on Lou Dort on

the final possession. There's an interesting dynamic there with help defense or with cutters that I want to talk about. You're just a minute. But you know the real story, like Kawhy didn't get a shot off, Yeah, that's fine. On the other end of the floor, the Thunderbird just

walking the clippers down to the basket. Every time down the floor there was there were three straight buckets for like on Kawhi Leonard just driving past Kawhi Leonard, Isaiah Joe hard drive on Kawhi Leonard stepped back into a little short jump shot that he made. Jaalen Williams just just attacked a close out on Kawai, just dusted him by his right shoulder and got to the basket for a nasty dunk. She guilt. Just Alexander straight iso Kawhi Leonard in position left elbow, just beats him to the

middle of the floor for the layout. And then on the final two possessions for the thunder Sails, Alexander just walked Russell Westbrok down into a fowl then got Eric Gordon on a switch and walked him down to the basket for a little floater. So the real story was they just couldn't guard, which is a whole other issue, and we'll talk about that in just a second. But I didn't want to say what I thought was interesting

on the final possession with Kawahi. You know, there were two cuts that took place on this play, and one of them was kind of a screen I think it was from Marcus Morris. He comes over like does a quick pick and pop. And then there was an other play where Russ cuts right before the final seconds. Russ cuts through to the opposite corner, but it's just a

touch too late. Here's the thing. Cutting is an excellent way to open up space for a guy to go to work because you're naturally going to drag defenders away with you, but you need to time it right to give the guy an opportunity to go to work. What happened there was like Marcus Morris ran his cut right after Kawhi was finishing a play. He wasn't ready to

capitalize on it. And then on the final attempt that he made that where he took the step back but he didn't get off in time, Russ cut, but not until it was too late for Kawai to drive that way. If Russ cuts like two seconds earlier, then Kawhi can take a hard couple of dribbles to that way. Maybe pump Bay can try to get him out of position and get up into a shot. So just a couple of awkward things there. But the reality is this. You know, Paul George came down and took a nasty knee injury.

It wasn't quite as bad as it looked, but he's going to be out for two or three weeks. And here's the thing. I was already seriously considering removing the Clippers from my list of real contenders based solely on the fact that they had no rim protection relative to the great rim protection you need to win a championship.

But I didn't remove them yet because technically I consider Paul George and Kawhi Letter to be kind of front court type talent, and I thought, man, if they just are really locked in defensively, then that can kind of

make up for that. But here's the thing, they are not overcoming their lack of rim protection without other world they superstar play from Paul Georgian Kwhi Letter, and it's just too much to ask for Paul George, who is a rhythm rhythm based pull up shooter, to walk into the middle of a first round series against what's probably going to be a very good team, a team probably like the Sacramento Kings and to just suddenly walk into

that series and look like prime Paul George. And so as of right now, I think their question marks are too much. So I'm removing the Clippers from my list of real contenders, keeping it down to just seven now. And that's the Celtics, Bucks, Sixers, and the Nuggets, Suns, and the Lakers and the Lakers, and I'm missing one of whom I missing, the Warriors. So that's my list of seven as of right now. All right, before we get out of here, it's got to the Eastern Conference.

So speaking of the Kings, the Celtics just beat the shit out of them last night one thirty two to one on nine in Sacramento. I will say, like the Celtics went on their run in the third quarter. The third quarter for Sacramento against Boston was one of the worst defensive performances I've ever seen from an NBA team that's not deliberately trying to lose basketball games. They were not getting matched up in transition. They were like there

was a play where not even a transition play. Celtics come up the floor in a standard half court set. There's just nobody guarding Jalen Brown in the left wing swing pass. Jalen Brown knocks down the shot. Jalen Brown was relentlessly attacking Deer and Fox and Keegan Murray and isolation. There's no help. Then when they do help, it's reckless. There's no organization to it. Sometimes they help out of the weak side corner. Sometimes they help out of the

strong side corner. You know, when they do help, they just kind of run into the play. They're not actively attacking the basketball. No one's trying to rotate around. It was honestly embarrassing watching the Celtics just go for a layup line an easy kick out threes. For that entire quarter. They had a one seventy four, one seventy four offensive rating.

In the third quarter, They're at home with the chance to beat one of the best teams in the Eastern Conference, and they had a one seventy four defensive rating in that third quarter. Sacramento did for the game, they had a one forty one defensive rating. And you know, and the perimeter sized thing was really starting to show up because Jason Tatum was catching Kessler Edwards a lot. They were beating him just with quick seals underneath the basket, just how much size they have to give up at

those spots. But you know, it was interesting. It's like, we can talk a lot about their defense, and I've talked a lot about Sacramentos defense all season, but the biggest thing that concerned me in that game for Sacramento is Boston kind of locked him down in the second quarter and fourth quarter. In particular. They held him to like one hundred and fifteen offensive rating in the game for what is the best offense in the history of

the league right now. They were switching almost every ball screen, basically anything that didn't involve Robert Williams. They were switching, and Darren Fox was not attacking when he saw those opportunities. They when they would switch, they would just front Demonus s Abonus as he's rolling to the basket with lots of help around him, finding guys that they could ignore. It was a really impressive defensive performance, and it kind of it comes down to a couple of different things.

Because we're gonna talk Celticstern just a second. But the reality of playoff basketball is easy baskets are not there anymore. When you're playing against good teams. They will be there against Sacramento because they don't play in the defense. But you don't have those easy baskets anymore, and it is going to come down to against switching came Demonus, s Abonus and Darren Fox consistently create an advantage, and I

think they'll be fine. They'll be fine, but they're not going to be the other worldly offense that they were in the regular season, and that's when their defense will come up to be a problem. But I wanted to talk a little bit about Jean Brown because so Jean Brown had this really bizarre quote that came out. I believe it was before the King's game. As a matter of fact, I'm certain it was, and he said, quote, he was asked about his future in Boston and he said, quote,

I don't know. As long as I'm needed, it's not up to me. We'll see how they feel about me overtime and I feel about them overtime. Hopefully whatever it is, it makes sense. But I will say where I'm wanted. I will say where I'm needed and treated correct end quote. Now here's the thing that is a weird quote. I won't lie, but I'm gonna say the same thing I said about the Warriors last week. Nobody likes to lose.

I hate to break it too. I believe coming into the King's game, the Celtics had lost its six out of eleven games ven, playing some sloppy basketball. And we'll talk about them as a team here in just a minute. But like that, that sort of thing is just natural competitive reaction to No one enjoys losing basketball games. You know what, the Warriors looked pretty dejected the other day,

you know, when they were on that losing streak. But you know what, you're on the road, you beat a Houston team, you go into Dallas and Steph makes a nice little drop off past to Draymond Green, and Steph is flexing and screaming at the crowd, and Draymond Green's on the ground flexing, and everything's fine because winning cures everything.

So the reality is, I think the Celtics will go into the first round and beat the hell out of whoever they end up matched up with, which apparently that's up in the air now, because again, if Boston toasts away the two seed, they deserve what's coming to them. It's just you need to find a way to have home court for that particular matchup. It's already brutal that they've toasted away the one seed because the one seed might only have to play one of those guys as

opposed to two of them. Right, But, like, I'm not worried about Jalen Brown's comments. The reality is is the basketball fit is natural. He kind of compliments Jason Tatum in a lot of ways because Jason Tatum doesn't have that creative shop making piece Jaylen Brown does, so he's kind of the perfect compliment to him. They're an excellent

defensive duo. They're gonna win a lot of games. He's got to get a supermax contract that I think Jalen Brown is definitively a top fifteen player in this league. So I don't see any reason why he would not get the paycheck that he wants. So all of this is going to break out and be fine. I don't I'm not gonna suddenly care about Jalen Brown's comments when I didn't care about Golden State's bad body language. To me, it just doesn't really matter as far as Boston goes. Like,

I could not be less worried about them. I know there's a lot of negativity because they haven't finished the season as strong as you would hope. But here's the thing. All of the players that made the finals run last year are better this year. Tatum's better, Jaylen Brown's better, Derek White has been unbelievable, although he's struggling to get into the Joe Mazolla's rotation a little bit. Malcolm Brogden

has been a home run piece, you know. Grant Williams have been a little inconsistent as of late, but he's dealing with an elbow injury. Everyone's playing great. They're just they got off to such a hot start that it's such a big lead. They've lost a little bit of that urgency. It's gonna click in. They're gonna have a winnable first round series. Yeah, I know they might end up bashed up with Miami. Miami. They just don't have the perimeter size to handle Boston compared even to what

they had last year. So I'm just not particularly worried about that. So yeah, I remained very, very bullish on the Celtics. I still think they are a top top tier contender with Milwaukee. All right, guess that is all I have for tonight is always I sincerely appreciate your support. I'm not sure what the schedule is for the next few days, so keep tuned to my twitter feed and I'll let you guys know and I'll see you guys. That the volume